Britain still great but distinctly overweight, global quality of life …..

Britain still great – but distinctly overweight, global quality of life index shows.
By John Bingham, Social Affairs Editor 6:15AM BST 03 Apr 2014

See also; Editors Note and ReMEDI Rx Questions for Clinicians and Global Medics at end of article.

Britain is still great – but distinctly overweight – global quality of life index shows UK outranks the US, France, Japan and Italy in rankings of world’s most advanced countries but held back on health measures by high obesity rates.

Grumbling might be our national pastime but, according to a major new international ranking, people in Britain enjoy one of the highest qualities of life any of the world’s leading countries.

The UK scores ahead of Japan, the US, France and Italy and only a fraction lower than Germany on the “Social Progress Index”, a new international measure designed to rival GDP.

But the measure also shows Britain’s status as one of the fattest countries in the world is holding it back in health rankings.
Overall the UK emerges as the 13th out of 132 countries around the world in the international barometer of success, which combines statistics on everything from health and housing to educational standards and water quality.

The index, compiled by a team of economists led by Prof Michael Porter, of Harvard Business School in the US, is designed as an alternative to traditional measures such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is based on purely economic standards.

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More than 50 separate sets of figures from bodies such as the World Health Organisation (WHO), measuring quality of life and success, are converted into a single score. Although a pilot version was published last year using data from 50 countries, it is the first time a ranking has been produced covering most of the world.

New Zealand tops the table, ranked the best place in the world on measures as diverse as individual rights and sanitation, just ahead of Switzerland, Iceland and the Netherlands. Several of the top 10 spots are taken by Scandinavian countries while Canada, at seventh, was the highest-ranking member of the G8 in the table.

Britain comes in two places above its nearest neighbour, Ireland, in the rankings. But Germany inches ahead of the UK by a fraction of a single point, significantly scoring more highly in the “health and wellbeing” category.

While Britain is 13th overall, it plunges to 37th for health – one of the lowest rankings for comparable western countries – primarily because of its obesity levels. With around a quarter of the population in the UK officially classed as obese, the country ranks 109th out of 132 countries on the measure.

Mexico languishes as the most obese country in the western world, just ahead of the US. Meanwhile Japan, renowned for its people’s longevity, is the healthiest country in the world, with obesity levels less than a fifth of those in the UK.

Italy, which also routinely scores highly in longevity studies, comes second for health and well being.

Britain beats the world for education, with more top ranked universities than any other country. It has the lowest levels of human trafficking, and malnutrition in the study and shares top spot for a series of measures of “personal rights” which includes areas such as freedom of speech and assembly as well as having world beating school enrolment figures.

Britain also stakes a claim to being the most connected country in the world, with the highest number of mobile phone subscriptions per hundred people.

But notably the UK falls to 21st place for “press freedom” – lower than other comparable countries. And despite having some of the lowest murder rates in the world, Britain scores less well than its rivals for “personal safety”, largely because of a higher-than-average score for fear of crime.

Michael Green, executive director of the Social Progress Imperative, which publishes the index, said that the UK’s overall ranking almost exactly matched its position in GDP tables. “It is more socially advanced than either Belgium, France, Ireland or Spain but loses out to all the Nordic countries, and to Germany by a single ranking,” he said.

“The UK is let down by its poor score on ‘health and wellness’ and the findings also illustrate ongoing problems with ‘personal safety’.” The study notes that despite the very similar overall scores for the UK and Germany there were “striking differences” – with Britain, like the US, scoring highly for individualism but lower on measures relating to the social safety net.

Editor’s Note;
Obesity, see how Britain compares with other obese countries and see %age population who are obese. (You will need to go onto the Daily Telegraph Website to see this chart but it is worth looking at, just click on the link below).

ReMEDI Rx Questions for Clinicians and Global Medics;
Which are the healthiest countries in the world? and why?
Where in the world would you be happiest to work as a doctor or other healthcare professional? and why?
What are the differences between the Social Progress Index (SPI) and the GDP of a country?
Using clear concise, clinical English, how would you extract and communicate a summary of the above information to a clinical colleague?
As a qualified health professional, how would you help patients who are obese, locally, nationally and globally?
What do you understand about; “Prevention is better than Cure” and how could this saying be applied to healthcare in;
Your homeland? The hospital where you work? The UK? Europe? and Globally?
What do you know about the World Health Organisation?